A relay of asteroids dedicated to Dante Alighieri is arriving on the night between 13 and 14 September, exactly 700 years after the poet's death, which dates back to the night between 13 and 14 September 1321. The announcement arrives on Asteroid Day, the international day dedicated to asteroids.
"In just one night it will be possible to observe four asteroids dedicated to Dante", astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project and coordinator for Italy of Asteroid Day, told ANSA.
On the night between 13 and 14 September, the first to be visible at sunset will be the asteroid Beatrice, which will pass between the stars of Sagittarius. Then it will be the turn of the asteroid Divinacommedia, discovered in 2003 by Masi himself with his colleague René Michelsen and whose name the Italian astrophysicist proposed, recently accepted by the International Astronomical Union (Iau). Divinacommedia will remain clearly visible throughout the night among the stars of the whale, Masi said again.
Towards dawn, then, in the same constellation of Gemini, the asteroids Dante and Virgil will pass, very close to each other: "they will be less than 10 degrees away", observed Masi.
The announcement comes on the World Day dedicated to the surveillance of the asteroids closest to the Earth, the
so
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called Neo (Near Earth Objects) that could become a threat to our planet. According to NASA, at least 16,000 have been discovered so far and it is no coincidence that to warn of how essential it is to monitor and study them, the United Nations has chosen to celebrate Asteroid Day the date of 30 June, that is the anniversary of the impact. most catastrophic so far recorded in history, that of Tunguska on June 30, 1908.
As in 2020, Asteroid Day is celebrated especially online this year, with events organized by groups of amateurs and astronomers from all over Italy and everywhere, observes Masi, the goal is "to launch a global information campaign, allowing the public to discover and learn about the asteroid realm, what we can do to protect ourselves from possible future impacts and how we can instead consider them useful resources for humanity ".
